ERIC Number: EJ803236
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 30
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0734-2829
Developing and Evaluating a Measure of Young Children's Attitudes toward School and Learning
Henry, Gary T.; Mashburn, Andrew J.; Konold, Timothy
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, v25 n3 p271-284 2007
High-stakes testing may potentially influence young children's attitudes toward school and learning. This study describes the development and evaluation of child and teacher versions of a measure called Children's Attitudes Toward School (CATS). Exploratory factor analyses of responses by 335 first graders and 130 first-grade teachers each identified the same underlying dimensions of attitudes related to three types of school activities--Academic, Early Literacy, and Child-Initiated. Confirmatory factor analyses of the three-factor model among a second split-half sample of 307 children and 129 teachers achieved acceptable fit. In general, children's self-reported attitudes were not associated with their achievement; teachers' judgments of children's attitudes had weak to moderate correlations with children's directly assessed skills and weak to moderately strong correlations with teachers' ratings of children's skills; children's self-reported attitudes and teachers' judgments of children's attitudes were not significantly correlated. Implications of these findings for assessing young children's attitudes are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)
Descriptors: Student Attitudes, School Attitudes, Attitude Measures, Grade 1, Elementary School Students, Elementary School Teachers, Teacher Attitudes, Factor Analysis, Correlation, Material Development, School Activities, Validity, Reliability
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 1; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Georgia

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